Dependence on cattle for income.

[hurleyjd]

I have been wondering about how many of the board members depend on their cows for all of their income. I do not it is something to keep me busy. My accountant says I would be well ahead to not have any cows. Most of my income is from pensions, and investments. I am 66 years old and have owned some cows from the time I was 9 years old.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Most of my income is from pensions, and investments.

Sounds like you did a wise thing.

 

[sainty01]

Income is a 100% from cattle.

 

[sainty01]

I thought this was an interesting question. How come there has been so little response?

 

[GMN]

I think this is an interesting question also, we would not be farming if we had to rely on the income solely from the dairy/milking. These days I think there are very few dairy farmers who do not have a second income.

GMN

 

[ga. prime]

It is an interesting question hurley. There's an article in the latest Cattle Today paper addressing that question. The answer is very few.

 

[3MR]

Thats been a loaded question here in the past and I think people are just tired of discussing it to some extent.

 

[hurleyjd]

Thats been a loaded question here in the past and I think people are just tired of discussing it to some extent.

I have not been frequenting this forum for very long and did not relize this had been discussed before. I did not intend to post a loaded question. The reason for the question was in my area of the world you see a lot of gray haired old folks with the cows. A few young ones are trying. The cost of land, equipment and such keeps the young ones out.

 

[J&T Farm]

We live completely off our cattle but our 3 chicken houses make the farm payments.

 

[Sevierite]

100% of our income comes from the sale of cattle. It
has been like this for the past 30 years. I guess this
puts us in the gray-haired category.

 

[Gate Opener]

hurleyjd would it be ok if the ones who are 100% told us how they do it. Didn't want to hijack your post but thought that it went along the same lines and we could learn something from them. Surely this can be done without conflict.

 

[stocky]

Where I live is in the area of the most concentration of mama cows in the country. Also there used to be more dairy farms in this area than most places until they all went out of business. I am 49 years old and I cannot tell you the name of one person anywhere in that concentration of beef and dairy that did not have off farm income to survive and many of them went broke, even with off farm income. There are people on here who do not have any off farm income and I salute them. Around here, farming is not a self sustaining venture. I also suspect there are people who now do not have off farm income but at some point they did or they received land or other essential items from family either free or at a discount. I dont believe off farm income is anything to criticize, I believe it is something to congratulate. Especially with insurance and the consistent income, it has become an essential part of the family future in case of tragedy.

 

[Sevierite]

As I posted earlier, 100% of our income comes from the
sale of cattle. We started 30+ years ago with a shares
agreement with a local landowner. He furnishes the land
and the fencing expenses. We furnish the labor and all
equipment. Fertilizer and cattle are shared 50/50. Our
cow herd began with other people's culls. We bought
dairyX cattle and bred them to beef bulls and kept most
of the heifers. 90% of our cows today can trace back
to those "cheap heifers". Incidentally, we still live on that
same farm and are operating under the same agreement.

Would we do it again...knowing how things worked out?
Probably not. What we really wanted was a place of our
own....an elusive dream. However, we have never been
hungry and we are debt-free. It has all worked out.

 

[Gate Opener]

Regarding the culls you bought, were they just old or did they have problems?

 

[Sevierite]

They were just dairyX cows and heifers that no one else
wanted at that time.

 

[Gate Opener]

Did you buy them from the dairies themselves or the sale barn?

 

[Sevierite]

They came straight from the stockyard. We had
all sizes and colors along with the troubles
that come with stockyard cattle. You must remember,
though, that this was 30 years ago. A lot of people
still had family milk cows in our area and jerseyX calves
were common and cheap.

 

[flaboy-]

Income? What's that?

 

[Christopher Lucy]

I have been wondering about how many of the board members depend on their cows for all of their income. I do not it is something to keep me busy. My accountant says I would be well ahead to not have any cows. Most of my income is from pensions, and investments. I am 66 years old and have owned some cows from the time I was 9 years old.

You should fire your accountant. I am VP of a manufacturing company in VA., and on the side, own 175 head of cattle and rent approx. 340 acres. I write off, on average, $62K annually with an average profit of approx. 30k. Not a bad additional income, and the tax write-off is wonderful.

 

[hurleyjd]

I have been wondering about how many of the board members depend on their cows for all of their income. I do not it is something to keep me busy. My accountant says I would be well ahead to not have any cows. Most of my income is from pensions, and investments. I am 66 years old and have owned some cows from the time I was 9 years old.

You should fire your accountant. I am VP of a manufacturing company in VA., and on the side, own 175 head of cattle and rent approx. 340 acres. I write off, on average, $62K annually with an average profit of approx. 30k. Not a bad additional income, and the tax write-off is wonderful.

Let me explain what my accountant told me. I normaly spend $24 to $30K a year on depreciation, pasture improvements, fuel fert. and related expenses in my cow operation. At the end of the year when the calves are sold and everything is totaled up I have a net loss of around $5K. I had asked my accountant how much more in taxes would I have to pay if I did not have the farm expenses. He said around $4500. And said to me if I were you I would give $375 a month not to do anything. Could you explain in full detail how you can write off $62K and still have a profit? This would be of great interest to me as well as other members on the board.